Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
I placed it back on the shelf and moved through an arched doorway deeper into the playhouse, finding myself in a split area. The left side was a doll nursery the size of an office cubicle. A golden lace covered round bassinette was filled with the most beautiful life-like dolls and on one wall was a small dollhouse that looked exactly like the castle playhouse I was in, only dollhouse-sized. What a trip. I was in a big castle that housed a playhouse that looked like the house and in it was a dollhouse that also matched. Like nesting dolls. The right side of the room I was in was set up like a science lab with two small desks, what looked like fancy microscopes, a science kit of some sort with blue glass beakers and a tray of test tubes. The back wall was one big, curved television screen and a massive panel keyboard protruded, filled with symbols. I touched nothing, unsure if it was real or pretend, and then found myself at the end of the playhouse in the back of the alcove with a window overlooking a side yard that was mostly greenhouse until where the tall fence separated this property from forest. A foot away from that window sat a glass easel and art supplies. I moved closer to a photograph clipped on the wall beside the window with a heavily pregnant gorgeous lady with dark hair, in the arms of Zane. A smiling Zane. Between them, a small, beautiful female toddler with dark ringlets and big milky green eyes. She looked like a female version of Ollie. Below the clipped photo was a canvas with a pink scribbled outline of three stick-figure bodies with very small heads, the medium sized one with a giant belly. That little tot was trying to draw her family. She didn’t get very far. My hand clapped over my mouth and a tear immediately rolled down my cheek. My heart ached. My elation vanished, and reality sank in.
Jaya’s room. That’s what Ollie had said. That’s where I was. Jaya. A daughter. A sister. Who was gone.
I backtracked, feeling like an intruder, until I exited the playhouse and left the bedroom.
This planet has almost no women. His wife and daughter died, probably when Ollie was a little baby. That beautiful woman was someone Zane married. And she died.
My heart ached. That little playhouse was a shrine to that little girl. I felt immense sadness as I stepped into the hallway and tried to bite back the tears pricking my eyes, feeling burning in my sinuses and aching in my chest.
The hall carpeting was white and as plush as walking on a cloud despite my slightly aching feet due to these high heels. I had no idea what the textile type was, but it was better than any rug I’d ever stepped on. Not real practical for a widower and his little boy, but yet it was spotless. The walls were champagne-colored and textured like stone with blond wooden crown molding covered in intricate swirls. There were a few pieces of artwork on the walls. One was a painting of a glowing and three-dimensional solar system, though not any sort of solar system I’d ever seen. The next piece of art I passed was a forest scene, though the trees were pastel colors. It looked like the fields beyond that reception area we’d visited. It was odd. And beautiful. The backdrop was the pink sky with lavender-colored clouds. A polar bear cub peeked out from behind one of the trees in a painting beside a door. The bathroom? I twisted the handle. Locked.
I’m on another planet. So many things are just… so…odd. And fantastic. Yet familiar. Things so far weren’t too far out there. This planet seemed similar to ours.
Next to the locked door was a set of doors leading to a terrace much like the one we had already been on, but this one was on the other end of the house, and much smaller. What I’d thought was a gazebo from the other terrace revealed itself to be a pyramid-shaped daybed, and it floated about three and a half feet off the ground. No legs and nothing above holding it in midair. I gave my head a shake, astonished. It was filled with dove gray pillows, alternating ones covered in fluffy fabric. This looked like the ideal spot to read, the view of the red mountain-scape straight ahead. Wow. What a great spot. I had no idea how it managed to float on nothing. I spied a small sitting there weighing down a piece of paper with another drawing.
For me, too?
It was another of Ollie’s drawings, of me, reading a book in a drawing of the lounge bed. Oh, my goodness. He was quite the artist for his age. The perfect reading spot was, indeed, a reading spot. For me? There were a bunch of small symbols printed on it. I had no idea what they meant. The Phallyxian language, obviously.